Echoes of Etro
by RuneFencer
Summary: Set after the 160/160 ending of FFXIII-2- The Goddess is Dead. Surprisingly, Caius Ballad is not, and something woke Lightning from her crystal stasis. Yuel is nowhere to be found within Valhalla, and the rifts call forth something long forgotten. Eventual Caius/Light.
1. Chapter 1

_This is my first attempt at Final Fantasy fic. If it doesn't suck, I'll continue it. ^.^_

* * *

_"The goddess is dead..."_

The words echoed in the empty realm, yet it was clear that the speaker expected someone to hear him. Violet-blue eyes scanned the area, flashing briefly to an infernal red when all he saw was empty space.

"Yuel?" he almost whispered. "Where are you?" He rose from the crystalline throne of Etro and moved forward, his grace tempered by a sense of urgency. She should be here, damn it! He'd succeeded! The damnable goddess was gone, her champion lost in crystal sleep... and the other two, well, one was no longer a factor, either!

He supposed he should feel bad about that, but _nothing_ was more important than her. Nothing at all. It was Etro who had killed Serah Farron, not him. His responsibility to that was limited to the barest echo of remorse, and that, too, was all right.

Valhalla seemed to be empty, though, and Caius wondered why.

The realm seethed with chaos energy, and though events had weakened his bond to it, the travellers' efforts had reversed that to an extent. Everything was paradox, time's paths riddled with holes and breakages...and then there was this place, which would now destroy time itself with no further barrier.

She should be here. He KNEW she should be here; his past selves had all but confirmed it.

He wasn't the Seer, though- only the Guardian. The Eyes of Etro were closed within him; only the gifts given by the Heart of Chaos and the blessing/curse of being a l'Cie were his.

Caius knew he wasn't yet done; he wasn't in stasis. At least, he was fairly certain he wasn't in stasis, anyway. One could never be sure of that. As thoughts of crystal stasis ran through his mind, he looked behind him... and immediately noticed something was missing.

Lightning was gone.

Caius looked to the sky, expecting to see her above him, riding the eidolon Odin as she'd done far too many times. The only thing above him was roiling entropy, though- no sign of the rose-haired warrior-maid that had made his life interesting in so many ways.

With no imminent attack, he tugged lightly on the strands of Chaos and cast them out in a sort of net, searching for Yuel.

The silvery-haired seeress wasn't even ON Valhalla, as far as he could tell. Caius grew angry, eyes flashing crimson, and he turned once more to where the crystal statue of Lightning Farron had sat. The platform was still there... until suddenly it wasn't, obliterated with a burst of energy that expanded as it detonated.

"Yuel!" he cried, hoping against hope that someone would hear him... someone other than a rift-beast, or some other creature that fell from the cracks in space-time.

"The goddess is dead. Lightning is gone. Why is Yuel not here with me in this place?" The words echoed flatly in the ruins, the wind carrying them to the shattered edges of what was once Etro's gate.

A low, soft voice came from the ruin.

"Not as gone as you think, Caius Ballad."


	2. Chapter 2

Part 2, published concurrently with part 1. I do hope people like this. I suffer from the 'I think everything I write sucks' syndrome. Read and review, please!

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He brought his blade up in an arc just in time.

Lightning looked almost exhausted, yet her swing was as true as it ever was- the shining tip of the gunblade coming uncomfortably close to his chest before impacting with the battle-scarred steel of his greatsword. In her left hand was a tiny orb of silver light that expanded, striking Caius in the chest with ruinous force.

He fell back and stepped slightly to the right, pivoting on his left leg to present less of a target; her strike this time was far less accurate than the previous, and the bolt of her namesake energy almost pathetically weak in comparison to that which he knew she could command.

What was going on here? Did he even need to fight, with Etro gone?

"The cause for which you fought is over, Lightning Farron." he said, locking his eyes to hers.

"You're a lying bastard!" she cried, bringing the gunblade up to strike at Caius once more. Her accuracy was somewhat off, though, and the blade went wide of its target.

"Open your mind to what is... and what is not, around you. Do you sense Her presence? Do you sense anything at all, besides myself? I would think that you would at least _look_ before you strike." His tone was almost mild, and he found that he could hold her weakened strikes off without even trying very hard.

Lightning breathed in, her lungs burning. She'd been dreaming, and then suddenly she was awake. It felt as though something had torn away half her power- she knew she couldn't defeat him like this. Etro had touched her, granted her ability beyond a normal human... and some of that remained. Most of it didn't, and her adversary looked to be in perfect form.

_I won't give up, though_. she thought, taking the hilt of her weapon in both hands to shove back against the larger warrior.

A flash above her caught her attention, and Lightning looked up for just a moment. What she saw almost made her drop her blade.

Rifts, in and of themselves, weren't out of the ordinary. The shimmering golden light that led to other places in space-time had almost become comforting; their existence visible proof that Time wasn't going to end just yet.

She couldn't count the number of rifts that flickered in and out of reality above them. Lightning frowned; now that wasn't normal, not in the least. She leapt back, away from Caius, and slid on loose rock, barely able to catch herself and remain upright.

"It's falling apart." she breathed, almost whispering. She lowered her gaze to the warrior before her, blade held before her almost challengingly.

"What did you do." It wasn't a question; the accusation in her voice was plain.

"I did nothing. You might thank your goddess for this one." Caius said flatly.

The tip of Lightning's gunblade dipped slightly. "Oh, I don't believe that for a second."

"To see is to believe. Look around you, 'warrior of Etro'." Caius gestured to the skies. "This realm is falling apart, because Etro is _dead_!"

"Then why are you alive?" Lightning asked, rapier-quick.

Caius stopped, almost seeming to consider his answer. He shrugged slightly. "Perhaps I'm just too stubborn to die."

"Enough of your sarcasm!" she yelled, taking a single step forward. "You carried within you the heart of a goddess. If she were to be destroyed, you would also die. Wasn't that your aim? Isn't that what you wanted? As you live, so does she!"

He honestly didn't know; from all he'd learned, what Lightning said was what was supposed to happen. He shouldn't be alive right now. Yet he was, and so was Lightning. "Paradox." he replied, knowing it was a weak answer.

Lightning resisted the urge to scream in frustration. "No kidding, paradox. This whole thing has been nothing but one giant paradox. Tell me something I _don't_ know."

Any number of flippant answers came to mind, but Caius saw something behind Lightning that was a bit more important.

"There's something very large and very...otherworldy coming up behind you." he informed her, planting his blade in the ground.

Lightning snorted. "As if I'd fall for that-" A bright flash of light interrupted her, and she turned to look, hand still gripping her gumblade as if it were something vital, a tangible representation of sanity in a world gone completely insane.

"By the gods." Caius swore, looking up.

The rifts flashed in and out of time, and some of them gave birth to figures that neither warrior had ever seen. Some seemed to be fusions of fiends they'd both battled in the past; others had no resemblance to anything found on Cocoon _or_ Gran Pulse.

The shining light, though- its nature was clear enough. Though neither could quite make out the form, instincts older than memory attenuated their senses and put them on guard.

Power.

Grace.

Indifference.

_Fal'cie._


	3. Chapter 3

Part 3, am I think it's decent. Slight warnings for violent imagery.

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The light faded just enough to make out a form. Gleaming metal wrapped itself around a winged being shaded in fiery reds and oranges, tipped with white at the edges and on its avian-like face. It seemed to create its own light. The fal'Cie shrieked, seeming to stare through Lightning as she stared back, mouth slightly open in shock.

"I thought that the fal'Cie were-"

Caius interrupted. "Not that one, it appears." He wrapped what was left of his chaosflame around himself and vanished from sight, leaving Lightning completely alone.

Lightning was less than surprised, and she mumbled a few choice words, never taking her eyes off the thing in front of her. _What a coward_, she thought.

"I'm no slave of the fal'Cie." she said loudly, sliding into a defensive stance. "You're supposed to be dead!" She knew this one. She'd seen it before, though only for a moment.

Phoenix responded only with light. Light was its nature, after all. It shrieked at Lightning, casting out a wave of brilliance that made her freeze in her tracks, for in the light were images.

_Cocoon and Pulse, light and dark. Order and chaos, life and death. Etro forming, then disintegrating only to reform again. The pillar falling, and with it civilization._

_A shining silver gunblade crossed with a greatsword forged of ancient steel._

"No. I won't." Lightning breathed within the visions.

Phoenix screamed again. The light surrounding her pulsated, the visions growing worse. Lightning saw everyone she ever knew dead and broken, ravaged by time and violence. She could hear Serah screaming in the afterworld, pleading for respite from something unseen. The shrieking was almost a tangible thing, and images of bloodied bodies burned by sword and magic provided a horrific counterpoint to the message Phoenix was trying to share.

She couldn't take it anymore.

"_STOP!_" she screamed, falling to her knees in the dust of Valhalla. "This isn't happening. This is another crystal dream."

The light flared once more, and Phoenix showed Lightning how she'd awakened.

The beach of Valhalla was beautiful, if one could ignore the battle. Serah and Noel stood against Caius after defeating his incarnate form and its twins, and he was weakened enough by grief to demand his own death.

Lightning watched as Noel refused to kill him, and something within her wanted to walk up and slap him senseless for his folly. She was shocked when Caius forced himself onto Noel's blade, seemingly fading away. They walked into the rift, the /last/ rift, and Valhalla was silent for a time.

Darkflame flowed over the place where the Guardian had fallen, though, and Lightning recalled that one had to take the mantle of Guardian willingly and purposefully.

Noel had made a huge mistake.

What was chaos but what _could_ occur, after all? Chance was its lifeblood, its true power.

Weakened but very much alive, Caius Ballad stood from the waters, his blade reappearing in his hand. The crimson light of the Heart was severely dimmed, but clearly still present. He looked around as if expecting an attack, then forward, toward Lightning's crystalline prison. He walked toward the broken hall, clearly injured, using the greatsword as a sort of crutch until his natural healing could take over.

He never saw what hit him. Lightning gasped, watching the scene unfold in awe. The violet flame was something she'd long associated with Caius, but it emanated from the huge living construct that descended from the sky instead of the warrior. When it touched him, he tried to whirl around, but it froze him solid, washing over him in a cascade of pure chaos energy that took her breath away. A dark flash centered on his left arm, then faded as he fell to the sand again, seemingly unconscious. The being disappeared, only to reappear in the vicinity of the temple where her crystal statue sat.

The twist in probability was almost painful even in Phoenix's recreation as the chaos flame flared again, this time within the temple. Then it was gone.

Light and dark. Order and chaos. Life and death.

Unlike Pandaemonium, Phoenix would let her choose. Her greatest foe harnessed the powers of chaos in their purest form. Phoenix offered its perfect foil, its other half. Without a balance, paradox would reign eternal.

Without the balance, Chaos would win. An image of Caius smirking intruded upon Lightning's mind, and the resulting anger made her look up, staring the fal'Cie in what should have been its eyes.

"I'll never let him win."


End file.
